On 57th street, between 6th and 7th avenues, only one block away from where this unspeakable sacrilege is housed at the Edward Tyler Nahem Gallery, an ominous spectacle is taking place.

According to a CNN report, on Monday, amid the winds of hurricane Sandy, “a crane atop a luxury Manhattan skyscraper under construction partly broke off, leaving its arm precariously perched and hanging over West 57th Street. New York police and fire crews were on the scene, and part of the street had been closed off as a precaution, according to Detective Martin Speechley of the New York Police Department.”

Minneapolis, MN, October 29, 2012 (LifeSiteNews) – They used to call them “swingers.” Not anymore. These days, like most “alternative lifestyle” groups, they’ve adopted a new, more clinical-sounding description – polyamorist – and incorporated it into the names of a small but growing number of advocacy and social networking organizations.

As the battle over the true definition of marriage heats up nationwide, they want a place on the front line.

“Polyamorist” means “lover of many,” and it’s exactly what it sounds like. Polyamorists maintain more than one sexual relationship at a time, with the full consent and knowledge of all partners. Some are married to one partner but maintain a rotating stable of lovers. Others join together in more lasting unions between multiple partners – for example, a threesome or foursome (which they call ‘triads’ and ‘quads,’) wherein all parties enjoy sexual relations in various combinations – heterosexual, homosexual or both.

In the midst of Minnesota’s raging debate over gay ‘marriage,’ the Minneapolis-area City Pages recently featured twoarticles highlighting the polyamorist “lifestyle,” in which they interviewed some of its practitioners.

One such interview was with a mother of two young children, Julia Janousek. Julia, who has been married for 12 years to her husband, Jim, told the City Pages they decided to “open [their] marriage up” three years ago. She quickly met another man, Justin, and became sexually involved with him, a relationship that continues to this day.

Justin often spends nights at the couple’s house. At first, says Julia, they tried to hide the nature of the relationship from the children, claiming that Justin was just a “friend” who came for “breakfast,” but they soon gave up the charade.

“My kids get up way too early,” she said, “so I just couldn’t keep that up.”

“Jami,” a 31-year-old practitioner of ‘polyamory’ who asked the City Pages not to use her real name, blamed reality television for her interest in the lifestyle. “Back in college, I saw an MTV True Life special that was all about polyamory,” she said, “and I was like, ‘This is interesting,’” Later, fictional television would continue to shape her views. “Then I watched the show Big Love that was all about polygamy,” she explained, “and that got me thinking a lot more about my own life, even though it’s a little different.”

The Twin Cities, according to the City Pages, has an active polyamory scene. The paper described it in the intro to its coverage as “the metro community that believes love is too big for just two.”

Same-sex “marriage” advocates have been adamant in their denial that a redefinition of marriage to include homosexual couples could lead to a “slippery slope” of legalized polygamy or even bestiality. Polyamorists, however, appear to disagree. Those interviewed by the City Pages drew direct parallels between themselves and homosexuals, believing that their relationships are no less valid.

A member of the board of the Minnesota Polyamourous Network (MN Poly) who was interviewed under the pseudonym “Carrie” told the City Pages, “I remember once in the gay-marriage movement several years ago there was an opinion piece written in another local publication. The right-wing groups and talking heads were all saying things like, ‘We can’t support gay marriage because the next thing will be polyamorous marriages.’ I thought that was interesting because I had never heard polyamory mentioned in the media before,” she said.

She continued, “this publication wrote an op-ed piece where they said, ‘You don’t have to worry about polyamorous marriage because polyamory doesn’t exist.’ That really upset a lot of us,” she said, “because we felt like we were being marginalized.”

The group responded to the offense by organizing a letter-writing campaign. Carrie says the campaign raised the awareness of polyamory in the local community.

“It’s a lot different now that we have organized groups,” she said, “and I think because people have become so much more accepting of the GLBT community and other types of relationships, I think our group and our community is going to continue to grow.”

She predicted a bold future for the subculture. “I think that we are the next equal rights movement,” she said, “and that poly is going to continue to become increasingly accepted in the future.”

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

It’s always good to remember the power of Our Lady’s intercession in times of great public suffering, as we are experiencing right now with the aftermath of hurricane Sandy, so that we are reminded to always turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the moment of our own great need – personal or public.

The story I am asking you to hear, and the photos that I am asking you to see, are not from this hurricane, but from an earlier storm that took place a few months again in the state of New Jersey.

The basic facts are amazing, not to use the word “miraculous.”

Please go here to see the video, to see the photos and to hear the story from the people who saw it themselves:

The Kingdom of God will attain its fulfillment in the next world. For all of us, however, it already begins to exist germinally in this world — just as in a novitiate the religious life is already put into practice, albeit as a preparation, and in a military school a young man trains for the army by living a military life.

The Holy Catholic Church in this world is not only an image of Heaven, but a real anticipation of Heaven.

Everything, therefore, that the Holy Gospels tell us about the Kingdom of Heaven applies most properly and exactly to the Catholic Church, to the Faith She teaches and to each one of the virtues She inculcates.

This is the meaning of the Feast of Christ the King. He is above all the Heavenly King, but nevertheless, a King whose rule is already exercised in this world, and a King Who, by right, possesses full and supreme authority.

A king legislates, rules and judges. His royalty becomes effective when his subjects recognize his rights and obey his laws. Now, Jesus Christ has all rights over us. He promulgates laws, rules the world and will judge mankind. Thus, it is our obligation to make His Reign effective by obeying His laws.

This reign exists on an individual level, insofar as every faithful soul obeys Our Lord Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, Christ’s Reign is exerted on our souls, therefore, each soul is under Christ’s jurisdiction. The Reign of Christ will become a social fact if human societies obey Him.

Thus, it can be said that the Reign of Christ becomes effective on earth, in its individual and social meaning, when men both in the depths of their souls and their actions, and when societies in their institutions, laws, customs, cultural and artistic manifestations comply with Christ’s Law.

Nevertheless, however actual, brilliant and tangible it be, the Christ’s earthly Reign is nothing but a preparation and prologue. In its fullness the Kingdom of God will be achieved only in Heaven: “My Kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).

Order, Harmony, Peace, Perfection

Order, peace and harmony are essential characteristics of every well-formed soul and well-constituted human society. In a sense, these values merge with the very notion of perfection.

Every being has its own end and a nature appropriate to obtaining this end. Thus, a part of a watch is intended for a special purpose and is suited by its shape and composition to serve that purpose.

Order is the arrangement of things according to their nature. A watch is in order when all of its parts are arranged according to the nature and end peculiar to them. Thus, there is order in the sidereal universe because all celestial bodies are arranged according to their natures and ends.

There is harmony between two beings when their relations agree with the nature and the end of each of them. Harmony is the working of things in relation one to another according to order.

Order generates tranquility. The tranquility of order is peace. Not any tranquility deserves to be called peace, but only one resulting from order. Peace of conscience is the tranquility of the righteous conscience; it must not be mistaken for the lethargy of the benumbed conscience. Organic well-being produces a feeling of peace that cannot be mistaken for the torpor of a coma.

When something is entirely disposed according to its nature, it is in the state of perfection. Someone with a great ability and desire to study, when placed in a university where all the resources exist for his studies, will be in a perfect position in regard to studies.

When the activities of a being are entirely true to its nature and are wholly directed towards its purpose, these activities are in some way perfect. Thus, the trajectory of the stars is perfect because it agrees fully with each one’s nature and end.

When the conditions in which a being finds itself are perfect, its operations are also perfect and it will necessarily tend towards its end with maximum firmness, vigor and skill. Thus, if a man is in the condition to walk, that is to say, can, may and wants to walk, he will walk impeccably.

The real knowledge of what perfection is for man and societies depends on an exact notion of man’s nature and end. The righteousness, fruitfulness and splendor of human actions, either individual or social, also depend on the knowledge of our nature and of our end.

In short, the possession of religious truth is the essential condition for order, harmony, peace and perfection.

Christian Perfection

The Gospel shows us the ideal of perfection: “Be ye therefore perfect as also your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48). Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us this advice, and He Himself taught us to carry it out. As a matter of fact, Jesus Christ is the absolute similitude of the heavenly Father’s perfection, the supreme model we all have to imitate.

The rules of this perfection are found in the Law of God, which Our Lord Jesus Christ did not come “to destroy but to fulfill” (Matt. 5:17). They are the evangelic precepts and counsels. In order that man should not fall into error in interpreting commandments and counsels, Our Lord Jesus Christ established an infallible Church that may count on divine assistance never to err in matters of Faith and morals. Faithfulness in thought and deeds to the teaching of the Church is, therefore, the way every man can know and put into practice the ideal of perfection that is Jesus Christ.

This is what the Saints did. Heroically practicing the virtues the Church teaches, they perfectly imitated of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Heavenly Father, so that even the Church’s enemies proclaim it their moral qualities. For instance, regarding Saint Louis, King of France, Voltaire wrote, “It is not possible for man to take virtue further.” The same could be said of all the saints.

God is the author of our nature and therefore of all aptitudes and excellences found in it. In us, that which does not come from God are defects and the result of original and actual sin.

The Decalogue could not be contrary to the nature God created in us. Since He is God and perfect, there can be no contradiction in His works. Therefore, the Decalogue prescribes actions that our reason shows to be in agreement with nature, such as honoring our father and mother. It also forbids actions that we understand to be contrary to the natural order, such as lying. Therein consists, on the natural level, the intrinsic perfection of the Law and personal perfection we acquire by complying with it, since all operations consonant with one’s nature are good.

As a result of original sin, man has a propensity for acts contrary to his nature, rightly understood. He is subject to error in his intelligence and wrongdoing in his will. This propensity is so strong that without grace it be impossible for man to know or practice the precepts of natural law consistently and completely. God repaired our insufficiency, by revealing these precepts on Mount Sinai and, under the New Covenant, establishing a Church to protect men against sophisms and transgressions and instituting Sacraments to strengthen them by grace.

Grace is a supernatural aid intended to fortify the intelligence and man’s will, so that he can practice perfection. God does not refuse His grace to anyone, so perfection is accessible to all.

Can an infidel know the Law of God and comply with it? Does he receive God’s grace? A distinction must be made. In principle, all men in contact with the Church receive sufficient grace to know that She is the true church, to enter Her and to obey the Commandments. So if someone remains voluntarily outside the Church, or refuses the grace of conversion, he closes the gates of salvation to himself. The grace of conversion is the starting point of all other graces. On the other hand, if someone has no means of knowing the Holy Church — a heathen, for instance, whose country has never received missionaries — he will at least have sufficient grace to know and practice the most essential principles of the Law of God, since God does not refuse salvation to anyone.

However, if fidelity to the Law sometimes demands heroic sacrifices from Catholics, who live in the bosom of the Church, bathe in a superabundance of grace and means of sanctification, the difficulty is much greater for those who live far from the Church and without this superabundance. This is why pagans practicing the Law are a rarity.

“If our forebears were capable of dying to reconquer the Sepulcher of Christ, how could we not want — we sons of the Church as they — to struggle and die to restore something that is of infinitely more worth than the most precious Sepulcher of the Savior, that is, His reign over the souls and societies that He created and saved to love Him eternally?”

The Christian Ideal of Social Perfection

If we suppose that most of the individuals in a certain population practice God’s Law, what result can we expect from that society? This is the same as asking if in a watch each part works according to its nature and its purpose, what result may we expect from the watch? Or if each part of a whole is perfect, what must be said of the whole?

Since it is always risky to use mechanical examples for human situations, let us stick to the image of a society where all members are good Catholics, as described by Saint Augustine: Let us imagine “an army composed of soldiers as Jesus Christ’s doctrine forms them, of governors, husbands, spouses, parents, children, teachers, servants, kings, judges, taxpayers, tax collectors as the Christian teaching require them to be! And let them (the heathen) still dare to say that this teaching is contrary to the interests of the State! On the contrary, they have to admit unhesitatingly that it is a safeguard for the State when faithfully followed” (Epist. CXXXVIII, al. 5, ad Marcellum, Cap. II, n. 15).

Elsewhere, the holy Doctor, addressed himself to the Catholic Church:

“Thou leadest and teachest children with tenderness, young people with vigor, old people with calm as not only their body but also their soul requires. Thou submittest the wives to their husbands, for a faithful and chaste obedience, not to gratify passion but for the propagation of the species and the constitution of the family. Thou givest authority to the husbands over their wives, not in order to abuse the fragility of their sex, but to follow the laws of a sincere love. Thou subordinatest the children to their parents for a kind authority. Thou unitest, not only in a society but in a kind of brotherhood, citizens to citizens, nations to nations, and men one to another through the memory of their first parents. Thou teachest kings to care for their people and thou ordainest the people to obey the kings. Thou teachest solicitously to whom honour is due, to whom affection, to whom respect, to whom fear, to whom comfort, to whom rebuke, to whom encouragement, to whom a scolding, to whom a reprimand, to whom a punishment; and thou tellest in what way, if everything is not due to everyone, charity is due to everybody, injustice to nobody” (De Moribus Ecclesiae, Cap. XXX, n. 63).

It would be impossible to better describe the ideal of a totally Christian society. Could order, peace, harmony and perfection be brought to a higher level in a community? we answer with a short remark: If nowadays all men were practicing the Law of God, would not all the political, social and economic problems that beset us be quickly solved? However, what solution can we hope for them while men live in non-observance of the Law of God?

Did human society ever achieve this ideal of perfection? Undoubtedly. The immortal Pope Leo XIII tells us so: Once the Redemption was accomplished and the Church founded, “man, as if he were awakening from an old, long, and mortal lethargy, saw the light of the truth he had looked and longed for during so many centuries; above all he recognized that he was born for much higher and much more magnificent possessions than the fragile and perishable things attained by the senses and to which he had until then limited his thoughts and his concerns. He understood that the whole constitution of human life, the supreme law, and the end to which everything must submit is that, coming from God, we must return to Him one day.

“From this beginning and on this foundation consciousness of human dignity was restored and lived again; the sense of a common brotherhood took possession of men’s hearts. In consequence, their rights and duties were perfected or established anew, and virtues beyond the conception of ancient philosophy were revived. So men’s purposes, tenor of life, and characters were changed, and the knowledge of the Redeemer having spread far and wide and His power having penetrated into the very life-blood of the nations, expelling their ignorance and ancient vices, a marvelous transformation took place, which, originating in Christian civilization, utterly changed the face of the earth” (Leo XIII, Encyclical Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus).

Christian Civilization, Christian Culture

This splendid reality, an order and a perfection more supernatural and heavenly than natural and earthly, has been called Christian civilization, the product of Christian culture and a daughter of the Catholic Church.

One is cultured when his soul is not enslaved by the unruly and spontaneous play of its faculties — intelligence, will and sensibilities, but rather has enriched them through an orderly and reasoned effort. It is similar to a field, which does not cause seeds, chaotically strewn by the wind, to bear fruit. Only a farmer’s toil produces something useful and good.

In this sense, Catholic culture is the cultivation of the intelligence, will, and sensibility according to the norms of morality taught by the Church. It is identified with the very perfection of the soul. If it exists in most members of a human society (though in degrees and ways proper to the social condition and age of each one), it will be a social and collective fact. Moreover, it will constitute the most important element of social perfection.

Civilization is the condition of a human society that possesses culture and has created, according to the basic principles of that culture, its own customs, laws, institutions and literary and artistic systems.

A civilization will be Catholic if it is the faithful product of a Catholic culture and therefore, the spirit of the Church is the normal and vital principle of its customs, laws, institutions and literary and artistic systems.

Since Jesus Christ is the true ideal of human perfection and since a society that puts into practice all His laws has to be a perfect society, the culture and civilization born from the Church of Christ must be not only the best civilization but the only true one. Thus, Saint Pius X said: “There is no true civilization without moral civilization, and there is no true moral civilization save with true Religion” (Notre Charge Apostolique, Letter to the French Bishops on “Le Sillon”).

Thus, it can be inferred with crystalline conspicuousness that no true civilization exists that is not the result and fruit of the True Religion.

The Church and Christian Civilization

It would be false to think that the Church’s action upon men is merely individual and that She forms only persons, not peoples, cultures and civilizations.

In fact, God created man sociable, and He desires them to work for the sanctification of one another in society. That is why He created them receptive to influence. This can be said about the relations between individuals and between individuals and society. Our surroundings, laws and institutions exert an influence on us; they teach us.

To defy these surroundings, whose ideological action penetrates us, even by osmosis, takes high and strenuous virtue. Thus, the first Christians were no more admirable facing the wild animals of the Coliseum than when maintaining their Catholic spirit in a heathen society.

Thus, culture and civilization exert a tremendous influence on souls — for their ruin when the culture and civilization are heathen; for their edification and salvation when Christian.

How then, can the Church fail to attempt to influence culture and civilization? How can She remain satisfied with acting merely upon individual souls?

In fact, every soul influenced by the Church is a seed of that civilization, which She actively and vigorously spreads. Virtue shines through, penetrates and thus spreads. By spreading, it tends to transform itself into a Catholic culture and civilization.

As we have seen, the distinctive feature of the Church is to produce a Christian culture and civilization, and to produce all Her fruits in a fully Catholic social atmosphere. A Catholic must long for a Christian civilization just as a man imprisoned in a dungeon wants open air and a caged bird yearns after the infinite expanses of the sky.

This is our purpose, our great ideal. We move towards the Christian civilization that may arise from the ruins of today’s world, as the civilization of the Middle Ages was born from the ruins of the Roman world. We move towards the conquest of this ideal with the courage, the perseverance, the will to face and overcome all obstacles with which the crusaders marched towards Jerusalem. If our forebears were capable of dying to reconquer the Sepulcher of Christ, how could we not want — we sons of the Church as they — to struggle and die to restore something that is of infinitely more worth than the most precious Sepulcher of the Savior, that is, His reign over the souls and societies that He created and saved to love Him eternally?

Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat!

This essay first appeared in Catolicismo in January 1951. Source: Wesbite of Ireland Needs Fatima.

Only the Catholic Church has produced saints whose bodies have defied all laws of science and are Incorrupt. This video shows just a few. No other sect or religious group has incorrupt saints, as does the Catholic Church. See the Catholic Incorruptibles here:

From Ncregister.com -- Finally, a court that stands up for a right that isn't the right to rip babies apart with other people's money. The Fifth Circuit court essentially told the abortion giant Planned Parenthood to shut their whining gobs and that Texas has a right to not fund them. This victory is being called a "roadmap" for any state that wants to defund Planned Parenthood. A lot of states have tried. Texas did it. This is a very bad day for Planned Parenthood. Read more here:

Monday, October 29, 2012

St. Wolfgang

St. Wolfgang -- Bishop of Ratisbon (972-994), born about 934; died at the village of Pupping in upper Austria, 31 October, 994. The name Wolfgang is of early German origin. St. Wolfgang was one of the three brilliant stars of the tenth century, St. Ulrich, St. Conrad, and St. Wolfgang, which illuminated the early medieval period of Germany with the undying splendour of their acts and services.

St. Wolfgang sprang from a family of Swabian counts of Pfullingen (Mon. Germ. His.: Script., X, 53). When seven years old he had an ecclesiastic as tutor at home; later he attended the celebrated monastic school on the Reichenau. Here he formed a strong friendship with Henry, brother of Bishop Poppo of Würzburg, whom he followed to Würzburg in order to attend at the cathedral school there the lectures of the noted Italian grammarian, Stephen of Novara.

After Henry was made Archbishop of Trier in 956, he called his friend to Trier, where Wolfgang became a teacher in the cathedral school, and also laboured for the reform of the archdiocese, notwithstanding the enmity with which his efforts were met. Wolfgang’s residence at Trier greatly influenced his monastic and ascetic tendencies, as here he came into connection with the great reformatory monastery of the tenth century, St. Maximin of Trier, where he made the acquaintance of Ramwold, the teacher of St. Adalbert of Prague. After the death (964) of Archbishop Henry of Trier, Wolfgang entered the Order of St. Benedict in the Abbey of Maria Einsiedeln, Switzerland, and was ordained priest by St. Ulrich in 968.

Statue of St. Wolfgang in the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht.

After their defeat in the battle of the Lechfeld (955), a victory gained with the aid of St. Ulrich, the heathen Magyars settled in ancient Pannonia. As long as they were not converted to Christianity they remained a constant menace to the empire. At the request of St. Ulrich, who clearly saw the danger, and at the desire of the Emperor Otto the Great, St. Wolfgang, according to the abbey annals, was “sent to Magyars” as the most suitable man to evangelize them. He was followed by other missionaries sent by Bishop Piligrim of Nassau, under whose jurisdiction the new missionary region came. After the death of Bishop Michael of Ratisbon (23 September, 972) Bishop Piligrim obtained from the emperor the appointment of Wolfgang as Bishop of Ratisbon (Christmas, 972). Wolfgang’s services in this new position were of the highest importance, not only for the diocese, but also for the cause of civilization. As Bishop of Ratisbon, Wolfgang became the tutor of Emperor St. Henry II, who learned from him the principles which governed his saintly and energetic life. Poppe, son of Margrave Luitpold, Archbishop of Trier (1016), and Tagino, Archbishop of Magdeburg (1004-1012), also had him as their teacher.

St. Wolfgang deserves credit for his disciplinary labours in his diocese. His main work in this respect was connected with the ancient and celebrated Abbey of St. Emmeram which he reformed by granting it once more abbots of its own, thus withdrawing it from the control of the bishops of Ratisbon, who for many years had been abbots in commendam, a condition of affairs that had been far from beneficial to the abbey and monastic life. In the Benedictine monk Ramwold, whom St. Wolfgang called from St. Maximin at Trier, St. Emmeram received a capable abbot (975). The saint also reformed the convents of Obermunster and Niedermunster at Ratisbon, chiefly by giving them as an example the convent of St. Paul, Mittelmunster, at Ratisbon, which he had founded in 983. He also co-operated in the reform of the ancient and celebrated Benedictine Abbey of Altach (Nieder-altach), which had been founded by the Agilolf dynasty, and which from that time took on new life. He showed genuine episcopal generosity in the liberal manner with which he met the views of the Emperor Otto II regarding the intended reduction in size of his diocese for the benefit of the new Diocese of Prague (975), to which St. Adalbert was appointed first bishop. As prince of the empire he performed his duties towards the emperor and the empire with the utmost scrupulousness and, like St. Ulrich, was one of the mainstays of the Ottonian policies. He took part in the various imperial Diets, and, in the autumn of 978, accompanied the Emperor Otto II on his campaign to Paris, and took part in the great Diet of Verona in June, 983.

St. Wolfgang withdrew as a hermit to a solitary spot, now the Lake of St. Wolfgang, apparently on account of a political dispute, but probably in the course of a journey of inspection to the monastery of Mendsee which was under the direction of the bishops of Ratisbon. He was discovered by a hunter and brought back to Ratisbon. While travelling on the Danube to Pöchlarn in Lower Austria, he fell ill at the village of Pupping, which is between Efferding and the market town of Aschach near Linz, and at his request was carried into the chapel of St. Othmar at Pupping, where he died.

His body was taken up the Danube by his friends Count Aribo of Andechs and Archbishop Hartwich of Salzburg to Ratisbon, and was solemnly buried in the crypt of St. Emmeram. Many miracles were performed at his grave; in 1052 he was canonized. Soon after his death many churches chose him as their patron saint, and various towns were named after him. In Christian art he has been especially honoured by the great medieval Tyrolese painter, Michael Pacher (1430-1498), who created an imperishable memorial of him, the high altar of St. Wolfgang. In the panel pictures which are now exhibited in the Old Pinakothek at Munich are depicted in an artistic manner the chief events in the saint’s life. The oldest portrait of St. Wolfgang is a miniature, painted about the year 1100 in the celebrated Evangeliary of St. Emmeram, now in the library of the castle cathedral at Cracow. A fine modern picture by Schwind is in the Schak Gallery at Munich. This painting represents the legend of Wolfgang forcing the devil to help him to build a church. In other paintings he is generally depicted in episcopal dress, an axe in the right hand and the crozier in the left, or as a hermit in the wilderness being discovered by a hunter. The axe refers to an event in the life of the saint. After having selected a solitary spot in the wilderness, he prayed and then threw his axe into the thicket; the spot on which the axe fell he regarded as the place where God intended he should build his cell. This axe is still shown in the little market town of St. Wolfgang which sprang up on the spot of the old cell.

Inside the Baroque house contains the cell of St. Wolfgang, inshrined in Sankt Wolfgang Church in Salzkammergut.

At the request of the Abbey of St. Emmeram, the life of St. Wolfgang was written by Othlo, a Benedictine monk of St. Emmeram about 1050. This life is especially important for the early medieval history both of the Church and of civilization in Bavaria and Austria, and it forms the basis of all later accounts of the saint. The oldest and best manuscript of this “Life” is in the library of the Abbey of Maria Einsiedeln in Switzerland (MS. No. 322), and has been printed with critical notes in “Mon. Germ. His.: Script.”, IV, 524-542. It has also been printed in, “Acta SS.”:, II November, (Brussels, 1894), 529-537; “Acta SS. O. S. Ben.”, V, 812-833; and in P.L., CXLVI, 395-422.

ATLANTA, October 26, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Chick-fil-A has learned upholding traditional values is not just good for the soul; it’s also good for business. Since President Dan Cathy stirred up a firestorm of controversy and protests by daring to say in public that he supports traditional marriage, the fast food chain has enjoyed record sales and increased brand recognition.

A typical line on Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, August 1.

According to a report by USA Today, consumer use, visits, and ad awareness all rose measurably in the third quarter, despite widespread negative media coverage of Cathy’s remarks to the Baptist Press opposing same-sex “marriage.”

A Sandelman and Associates survey of more than 30,000 fast-food shoppers in markets where Chick-fil-A operates showed consumer use of the restaurant chain rose 2.2 percent in the third quarter compared with the same period in 2011. Their market share rose 0.6 percent. Awareness of their advertising rose 6.5 percent.

Jeff Davis, president of Sandelman and Associates, said the restaurant increased its regular customer base in 80 percent of its markets.

The upswing in business may have started August 1 with “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day,” when consumers flocked to Chick-fil-A restaurants nationwide to show their support for free speech and traditional marriage. The business enjoyed record sales that day, as people waited in long lines in restaurants and in drive-thrus to buy chicken from the chain.

According to Davis, the media circus surrounding Cathy’s comments was “something that brought Chick-fil-A to the forefront of peoples’ minds.”

“There was a lot of talk that this would hurt Chick-fil-A, but it actually helped the brand,” Davis told USA Today.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Before the apparitions of Our Lady occurred, Lucia de Jesus dos Santos and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, who all lived in the village of Aljustrel in the township of Fatima, had three visions of the Angel of Portugal, also called the Angel of Peace.

The First Apparition of the Angel

The angel first appeared either in the spring or summer of 1916 at Loca do Cabeço, a rocky outcrop near the top of a knoll called Cabeço, not far from Aljustrel. This is Sister Lucia's account of the apparition:

"We had been playing for a while when a strong wind shook the trees. Since it was a calm day, this made us raise our eyes to see what was happening. Then we began to see, well above the trees that covered the stretch of land to the east, a light whiter than snow in the shape of a transparent young man who was more brilliant than a crystal struck by the rays of the sun.

"As he approached, we began to see his features. He was a young man of great beauty about fourteen or fifteen years old. We were surprised and ecstatic. We did not utter a word.

"Once he drew near us, he said: 'Fear not. I am the Angel of Peace. Pray with me.' "Kneeling down, he bowed forward until his forehead touched the ground. We imitated him, led by a supernatural inspiration, and repeated the words we heard him say: 'My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love Thee. I beg Thee forgiveness for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love Thee.'

"After he had repeated this twice, he rose and said: 'Pray thus. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplications.' Then he disappeared.

"The supernatural atmosphere that enveloped us was so intense that we were almost unaware of our own existence. For a long time, we remained in the same position we were in when he left, repeating the same prayer. The presence of God was so intense and intimate that we dared not speak to each other. On the following day, we felt our spirits still enveloped in that atmosphere, which was but slowly disappearing.

"None of us thought of talking about this apparition or of recommending secrecy, for the incident itself demanded it. It was so intimate that it was difficult to utter a word about it. This might well have been the apparition that impressed us the most, because it was the first one thus manifested."

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Saint Michael is the model of the Christian warrior because of the fortitude which he showed by casting into hell the legions of damned spirits. He is the warrior of God who will not tolerate the divine Majesty to be challenged or offended in his presence, and who is ready to wield the sword at any time in order to crush the enemies of the Most High.

He teaches us that it is not enough for a Catholic to behave well: it is also his duty to fight evil. And not just an abstract evil, but evil as it exists in the ungodly and in sinners. For Saint Michael did not cast evil into hell as a principle, a mere conception of the intellect, nor are principles and concepts susceptible to be burned by eternal fire.

It was Lucifer and his minions that he cast into hell, as he hated the evil that existed in them and which they loved.

We live at a time of profound religious liberalism. Few Christians have an inkling that they belong to a Church militant, as militant on earth as Saint Michael and the faithful Angels were militant in heaven. We also should know how to crush the insolence of wickedness. We too must tenaciously counter the adversary by attacking him and rendering him powerless.

In this struggle, Saint Michael should not just be our model but our help. The fight between Saint Michael and Lucifer has not ceased but continues throughout the ages. He helps all Christians in the battles they wage against the power of darkness.

***

This was taken from a memorable article printed in the September 1951 issue of Catolicismo, by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira in which he described Archangel Saint Michael as model of several virtues, for example, his humility and hierarchical spirit. He also described the intrepid Archangel as a model of combativeness, a virtue mostly forgotten in our relativistic times soaked in defeatist pacifism. Below is an excerpt of that article.

In the period of the Renaissance it was the gentleman who set not only the pattern of personal bravery but also maintained an element of decorum in the operations of the armies…. In [Charles de Cossé, count of] Brissac’s general orders for his campaign in Northern Italy in 1551…. Punishment was promised for those men who “blasphemed the name of God or the Virgin,” and anyone guilty of desecrating churches or raping women would be put to death….

French Gendarmes in the Italian Wars, early to mid sixteenth century, part of the Renaissance time period.

The gentleman of the Renaissance by tradition and training was prepared many times in his life to ride off to war. He was expected as a symbol to provide for his men a high order of bravery and inspiring leadership. He had to be able to control human beings rather than guide machines.